1. Digital Sustainability
in the Knowledge Society
Free/Open Source Communities
Spread of »Free/Open« to non­software
Dr. Marcus M. Dapp
Board OKF Germany / IT Strategist, City Government Munich
24.10.2011

2. Fundamental questions raised by FOSS
• They give valuable software, which
could be sold, away for free.
• This raises a few questions
• Community: Who are »they«?
• Motivations: Why are they doing it?
• Governance: How are they organized?
• Consequences for non­software?

3. FOSS Community – Demographic
• Young, well­educated men
• N=2784, 1.1% females
• Age: Majority 16­36 yo. Ø 27,1 yo.
• 70% uni, 17% high school, 8% A­level
• 83% IT sector (16% students)
• »all« over the world, some focus on
Western Europe the USA.
Final report D18 on
www.flossproject.org

4. FOSS Community – A variety of motivations I
Dapp (2009:54pp), Effects of Software Patent Policy on
Motivation and Innovation of FOSS developers

5. FOSS Community – A variety of motivations II
Dapp (2009:54pp), Effects of Software Patent Policy on
Motivation and Innovation of FOSS developers

6. FOSS Community – Governance Models
• From anarchy to »benevolent
dictatorship« and everything between
• Self­defense measures to »protect the
commons«
• Restrict proprietary usage (»free« vs. »open« debate)
• Legal/normative sanctions
• Foundation holds copyrights
• Create logo and file trademark
• Foundation holds trademarks
• Actively protect brand
Siobhán O’Mahony, Guarding the commons: how
community managed software projects protect
• Incorporate their work, Research Policy 32 (2003) 1179–1198

7. The Spread of »Free/Open« to non­software
• Expand principles to non­software
domains.
• »In the beginning all software was free.«
(Georg Greve)
• FOSS was first. Then came protocols
and formats and content …

8. FOSS philosophy expanding to new domains
Proprietary/Closed – Free/Open
Content
Formats
Software
Protocols

9. Free/Open Content – Concepts and Definitions
• www.opendefinition.org
• »The Open Definition defines openness in
relation to data and content.«
• www.creativecommons.org
• »(…) realizing the full potential of the Internet — universal
access to research and education, full participation in
culture — to drive a new era of development, growth,
and productivity.«
• Examples
• Wikipedia, Jamendo, Openclipart,
Flickr/Google (CC search)

10. Prop/Closed
Free/Open Formats & Protocols – Definitions
Free/open
• Communications protocol
• A communications protocol is a system of digital
message formats and rules for exchanging those
messages in or between computing systems and in
telecommunications.
• File format
• A file format is a particular way that information is
encoded for storage in a computer file.
• Technical standard
• An established norm or requirement about technical
systems, usually a formal document.
• De jure / de facto
Source: Wikipedia Oct 2011

11. Free/Open Protocols and Formats – Examples
• SIP (Skype) • ODF (doc)
• HTTP (?) • .ogg, .oga (mp3)
• ? (GSM) • .png (gif)
• .ogv, WebM (avi)

12. Protocols/Formats – When is a Standard open?
• Technical vs. Legal openness
• Publicly available
• Royalty­free or »RAND«
• Standards organisations (examples)
• ISO, DIN/SNV, IEEE, …
• Consortia: W3C, IETF, ...
• »Digital Standards Organization«
• »Promoting customer choice, vendor competition, and
overall growth in the global digital economy through
the understanding, development, and adoption of
free and open digital standards.«

13. Summary – The Spread of »free/open«
• FOSS philosophy spreads to non­
software: movements, organisations
emerge to transfer concepts, licenses,
and promote them.
• Fundamental differences between
free/open and proprietary/closed stay.
• Very complex techno­legal debates
plus strong financial interests vs.
Community interests